Growing a Successful Car Wash Chain with Industry Veteran Bill Martin

Are you looking for ways to streamline your processes and to improve your relationship with your employees in order to grow your car wash chain? In today’s Car Wash M&A, The Podcast episode, your host Lanese Barnett talks with car wash legend Bill Martin who has been in the business since 1969. Listen in to hear expert advice as Bill shares tried-and-true strategies and attitudes that have helped him succeed in the car wash space.

For more about Bill, a full transcript of the interview, and more, check out the post. Sign up for Car Wash M&A, The Newsletter. | Follow us on social media @AmplifyCarWashAdvisors on LinkedIn or Facebook. | Connect with Lanese on LinkedIn.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to Car Wash MA, the podcast, brought to you by Amplify Car Wash Advisors, the number one advisors of car wash chains nationwide on mergers and acquisitions in capital advisory services.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Hi, I'm Lenise Barnett, Vice President of Business Development at Amplify Car Wash Advisors, and your host of Car Wash MA, the podcast. Here we'll take a deep dive into the current mergers and acquisitions activity of the car wash industry with a goal of keeping car wash owners informed on where the market is today and where it's going tomorrow so that you can make informed decisions about your business. We'll help you answer the question: should I sell my car wash now or should I enter growth mode and really scale my operation? Each month, I'll speak with industry experts who will share practical advice on how to sell or scale your car wash. Well, the industry is undoubtedly changing. What remains constant is the need for solid information so you can evaluate where you are and chart the course for the future of your business. Hello and welcome to Car Wash MA, the podcast. We are on episode three. And today my guest is Bill Martin. So a little bit about Bill for those of you who don't know him. Bill is the current owner of Metro Express Car Wash with uh locations in the northwest of the United States. Bill has been in the car wash industry since 1969, and he started the brands Rain Tunnel Car Wash, New Look Car Wash, and was also one of the founding partners of the Car Wash Partners, which that brand later came on to be uh Mr. Car Wash. Bill is a international car wash hall of fame inductee in 2012, and he was also a past president of the International Car Wash Association. In addition to all of those other car wash related accolades that he has and experience, Bill is also my colleague at Amplified, where he is a partner at the firm. And I couldn't be more pleased to call him a friend and a coworker. So, Bill, first of all, thank you for coming on to the show today. And we can't wait to dive in and chat a little bit more about what makes car wash chain successful and how you can really build a scalable, successful business in today's car wash environment. Bill, if if there's anything else that I missed on kind of your background that you want to share, feel free to jump in. Otherwise, we'll kind of dive into some of the topics we're going to talk about today.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

Thanks for the introduction, Lenise. It's very nice. And uh I think the one thing I would add to what you've said by way of introduction is that ours is a family business. My wife and I have three children, and all three of them are in the business, two of them working in our office and one in the field remotely in Montana. So that's just a sidebar to add to that. I think that uh that for me is uh very gratifying to have the kids in the business.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

So absolutely. And and what a great experience growing up, having that role model of you of being in this business the whole time that that you can keep fine-tuning and working together and developing new processes. And I feel compelled to mention as far as some of the projects that you and your children have worked on is no pile-ups, not a small thing. So can you just share a little bit about um some of your background as far as making new ways to address needs of car wash owners because you have the hands-on experience where you guys found a void in the car wash industry and so you made it?

SPEAKER_02 3:51

Well, I think one of the one of the things that we did back going back to the mid-90s, we went to DRB and we urged them to uh we wanted to create a situation where we could pre-sell a customer a token. They could come up to the point of sale, throw the token in or insert the token in a basket or receptacle, a gate would open and they would they would go through the car wash and avoid having to stop and go through the whole process with a greeter. In other words, they would prepay, they could come through quickly. Always thought that would be uh a good way to process, help us process more cars when the demand was there. So I went to DRB and talked to Ken Brought, and he said, you know, that's a great idea. We just don't have anything like that. This was before the point of sale XPT or the auto centuries that are available today. I just was sure that that would be a better way to run our operation. And it took several years before something like that came out. That was one thing that we pushed hard on. Another thing that we did, again, uh going back several years, we wanted to find a way to make the processing of cars through the tunnel more reliable, less concerned about a vehicle jumping a roller and things like that. So we tried to come up with a way to track the car and monitor where it's located in the tunnel so that we knew if it wasn't where it was supposed to be, the car wash conveyor would shut off and we could alert our team members. We had developed something called video queuing back then in the early 2000s, where we could track vehicles that were sitting at the point of sale. We know which customer approached which service, and we could track them into the tunnel and deliver that service. This again was a forerunner of CarPix, which DRB has today. And DRB came out and looked at that system and later developed CarPix, but that was the early forerunner to that. And then following on that was no pile-ups, which we developed a few years ago again to help us monitor cars moving through the process in the tunnel and to make sure that they were where they were supposed to be all the time. And if they jumped a roller, uh, it would shut the conveyor off. We could we could attend to that. So we developed no pile-ups using video technology. And again, VRB came to us and thought this was a great platform to roll out to their client base, and they purchased that from us. So, like everybody, we're trying to find ways to make car washing more user-friendly for the customer and more manageable and scalable for the operator. Technology, we want to see technology as our friend, not as something we're afraid of. And I think technology can be you can become overly dependent on it and expect too much out of it. So you've got to manage it. But that's some of the things we've done. We're working on some other initiatives right now, actually, three or four different things in technology that we think will be pretty exciting going forward for operators of all sizes to manage the business and to again make it a more user-friendly experience for the customer and more manageable for the owner, operator.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

So, with those different technologies and processes that you were working on and then later developed and are now widely used throughout the car wash industry, it just really points to something that's so important to the success and the scalability of a car wash, which is the processing of the cars. So sometimes I feel like we can kind of get lost in how a car wash looks and what the menu pricing is, and some of these more visual parts of it, which are all important. But at the end of the day, the ability to process the cars efficiently and process them well and have a standard for how that goes, and using that assembly process to where you can maximize how many and how much volume you're able to produce with the with the quality that you're looking for is so important. And that's something that you do really well. And each one of those ideas and later technologies that came into fruition address that. So getting the cars in quicker and processing them, then that's really amazing. And so I kind of like to talk about the importance of processing cars and what that means to the success of your business and how how you can train your staff and how you can implement ways that focuses on the process part of it.

SPEAKER_02 8:17

In our company, we call it the Metro Way. The Metro way is people, process, product, and place. The time that a customer spends on your site is critical, in my opinion. You want to try to turn them around as quickly as possible. We measure that from the time the front tire hits the threshold of the driveway till the back tire departs the threshold of the driveway. So we we set standards and goals for how many minutes each process should take or how many seconds. I used to back in the full service days, I was always frustrated by the notion that we should try to sell the customer as much extra service items as we possibly could sell them so that we could maximize that revenue per customer. And my observation was that while we were doing that, we had these big gaps of empty space on our conveyor. And my argument was we can never make up in extra services what we lose in throughput. If a customer is going to pay you five or seven dollars for a car washer, 10, $10 today, let's say, but you lose a whole space because you're trying to talk them into spending $12 as opposed to 10, that's a losing proposition for the owner operator. That throughput management is so critical. Not only is it critical to maximize your opportunity that day, but it's also very important to the customer.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Right.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

Because that person that's number four, five, six, or seven in line is frustrated while he or she is waiting for that customer's, you know, at the point of sale to make a decision about, well, do I want to spend an extra two dollars here? I mean, to me, that was just never what we were about in our business. We were always about the processing of the customer and to try to get them back on the street as quickly as we possibly can.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

There's something there that with the person that's getting the more attention at the point of sale, and maybe there's an idea that the salespeople should be really friendly and chat with the customer because it makes that customer feel good. But the downside of that and the other side of the coin is that all the people behind them are really annoyed that that person's taking up so much time and attention that really you're you're over. And at the end of the day, they're probably not even gonna get the upgrade. So you've wasted your time, anyways. But you're right that you can't you can't look at one part of the process or of the of the equation without taking a holistic view of what the other customers are seeing too. Cause again, that that one person feels special, but the other people feel slighted.

SPEAKER_02 10:44

Right. And our model for the associate that we want out there talking to the customer is somebody that can be friendly, they can engage the customer, but they know how to keep it short, concise, and move them along without feeling like they're being pushed. But they have an interaction with the customer, they tell them about our services. We always start with, you know, our unlimited plan, then make sure that once the decision has been made by the customer, we keep that cue moving. So throughput management, it's really there's a lot of things that happen in that process, but that's something that Metro that we pay a lot of attention to. Some people say, well, it's just that you want to wash as many cars as you can wash. Yeah, of course we do. We want to process as many customers any given day or hour as we can, but that's a two-way street. It works for the customer as well as for us. That's a win-win, we think. So we don't pay any commissions to our associates for selling extra services. It's just not something we do. We we let the customer make the choice. The associate, they're paid to be there and manage the quality and the courtesy, not to try to sell a customer something that they may not want or need. So, anyway, that's that's how we function in that realm. And it's worked out pretty well. It's a constant training and retraining process. Uh, our general managers, their major role at the site is to train. We don't want them in the office, we want them out monitoring. We call it management by wandering around, watching what's going on at the site, giving feedback. We don't really want them plugged into a position, although sometimes they are just by nature of how busy we might be. But so we want them to be moving around and overseeing what's happening, of course, handling any kind of customer issues that may come up in the course of a day.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

So and let's talk a little bit about the training aspect of it. So the general managers there on site and they are overseeing their associates, their sales associates, and their staff to make sure that they are using the scripts that you have or using the processes that you have for speaking with the customers. But what's some of your higher level part of that of how that person is trained, how that general manager receives that information and some of the infrastructure that you have built in to disseminate that across your locations?

SPEAKER_02 12:50

We have tier trainings so that when someone comes on board, we obviously show them. I mean, there's video training, there's uh written training, there's apprentice training where they work side by side with someone, you know, we'll give them feedback for the first 30 days. They're they're on a trial basis to see, you know, if they like us and we like them. Constant feedback. I'd say by and large, our employee profile, they're younger folks, not always, not all, but most. And so a lot of them, in some cases, maybe their first job or you know, they're early in the work world. And so they're sponges, they want to learn generally, and so we have to give them a lot of good feedback. We have regular employee staff and safety meetings to give feedback to our team. We mystery shop our sites, we reward people for the right behavior, and we give them feedback for the wrong behavior. So it's just a constant process. And what I see happening in a lot of operations, not just car wash, a lot of businesses, they put a manager into a position of managing the business, but they're really uh become a fireman and they're trying to put out fires and fix problems other than really train train the staff every single day. We think that's the highest and best use of that general manager at our sites, the area managers, then are observing the results and giving that feedback to the general manager. So it's a it's a process, it's it's it's never ending. I mean, there's plenty of job security there because uh we're constantly uh trying to raise the bar and elevate uh the level of service and the uh commitment. By the way, we find that when we do correct, give the proper feedback in the proper way to these uh our staff, our associates, they uh welcome the feedback to be able to do better. Today, the cost to hire and retain employees is pretty high. We're starting people at in the $17, $18 an hour range in our markets. Uh, some people could even be higher than that, depending on where you're at. So we don't want to turn those people over, and we really, really work to keep that turnover down. We want to select the right people, we want to onboard them in the right fashion, but then we also we don't want to turn them, we don't want to churn them.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

So and something that across industries, but I've seen in the car wash industry as well, there's kind of this idea that, or this hope, unrightfully so, that you train someone and you you give them the information one time, and magically they're going to not only commit it to memory, but to replicate it successfully every time. And it's just not the case. I mean, we are humans at the end of the day, and you're right, a lot of times there are people who are new to that role, or maybe this is their first job. And so that ongoing commitment to training and retraining, and if it's built into the expectation from the beginning, it's so much less confrontational than if suddenly six months in they're getting reviews or quiz or things like that that they didn't have from the get-go to where it feels like it's more of a negative thing than a constructive criticism or helping them get better and helping the whole team get better. So I think you're onto something there.

SPEAKER_02 15:58

So we do an uh employee survey. I don't know if you can see that. We do an employee survey regularly, we just get feedback from our team or associates. It's anonymous, they can say anything they want. And I'm always struck by how many really positive comments we get. You know, a lot of times uh in years past, it's like, well, this job sucks, or you know, I hate being outside or whatever. I'm blown away by the positive comments we get. And I think it's because when they join our team, they join a culture that operates at a fairly high level, and they either understand early on that they've got to adopt that culture or they're not a fit. And we see it, we you know, we have grooming standards, we have uniform standards, and they're not onerous, but there are expectations we want them to follow. Actually, just this year have gone away from up until this year, everyone wore ties every day at work year-round. Wow. Ties and you know, a white shirt or a blue shirt, depending on their position. We have made the decision this year to go to polos. Maybe it's kind of a golf luck. Yeah, maybe it's a sign of the change in times, but we we supply very nice uniforms. Uh, we make sure that we have uniform standards, and I think a lot of folks do this, but we're in the retail business uh where we have retail customers, and we like to say retail is detail. And so you got to pay attention to those details all the time, and you got to remind folks. And pretty soon, again, they start to bring that into the culture and you see it, it becomes almost automatic.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Well, and another thing that so the retail is detail, sometimes too, this seems so basic, but the car wash industry by nature is all about selling clean. That is something that is so fundamental to our business that if you see an employee with a dirty uniform or that looks slouchy or dirty tunnel walls or trash on the car wash lot, it's a reflection of our business. And I think that that's cannot ever lose sight of that because that's our business.

SPEAKER_02 18:01

Yeah, going back for a minute to technology, we made it a conscious decision 25 years ago to stop prepping cars with you know high pressure prepping or brushing. We we made that change 25 years ago. And the reason we did it is well, two things really. One is it's a very hard job to do all day, you know, holding a high pressure power wash gun and uh, you know, prepping a car, especially in we're in the snow belt. So we, you know, we have very cold weather in the winter and you're out there with that hose. The other problem with it is people don't exactly know it's a hard job to train to get them to focus on the areas where you want them to focus.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

They tend to just, you know, you're not washing the whole car before it goes out.

SPEAKER_02 18:41

Right, right. So we decided that rather than try to make that a human responsibility or a function, we're gonna put equipment in to take care of that. And so that goes back to technology and equipment, the chemistry has gotten so much better over the years. We can really get a great product without that prepping. Now, admittedly, there are vehicles that come in that are have special situations that they need to deal with. We can't necessarily get a great result on those cars without somebody doing pre-work. We don't do it, but we tell the customer, you know, this is gonna have to be done. You may go down to the self-serve, do it yourself, bring it back, we'll give you a discount, whatever it is. But we want to be able to handle the majority of our customers quickly and efficiently and give them a consistent product. So uh that goes back to process.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

But the process time, just with the prepping, that's also slowing down how fast you can do that because different vehicles would have different varying degrees of attention needed. And then heaven forbid that you have a vehicle that doesn't need it and you don't do it, but now the driver thinks that they need it because that's what they're trained to expect that is part of their clean car process. Okay, so we have the process, we have the focus on getting the car in, getting them through the tunnel, the chemistry, the automations, the technology, but also let's talk about how your membership plan and your focus on growing monthly plan memberships can increase the value of your business and what that means to your business model and how important it is.

SPEAKER_02 20:06

Yeah, well, it's no secret that in our industry that that's been a game changer for our industry over the last 10 years. And uh, I'm amazed that a lot of folks still have not adopted that philosophy and for different reasons. And maybe it's work what they're doing is working well for them. We believe it's a critical part of our business going forward and uh a competitive edge. And so we work very hard to in the first year we open a store, if we take over an existing site, to grow that membership as high as we can grow it. And uh everybody in our company is incented based on how on the growth of membership. And I when I say everybody, I mean everyone, corporate office right down to the to the site. So everyone uh is top of the mind about you know, talking about memberships. And by the way, we still don't do it as well as we should or could. You could mystery shop one of our locations, and it's possible that the the associate may never mention that. So we're constantly working on trying to get that back up there. But so I think that we're gonna see more and more of that in the industry. Whenever a person's your member, a member, they're gonna come to you, come to your site, they're not gonna go somewhere else, they're gonna be loyal. New car wash opens are more likely to stay committed to you, and their vehicle is gonna be uh easier job to manage. We also have Flex Surf, Full Surf, and we have unlimited members there as well. And we find those cars are much easier to clean on a regular basis.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

And the the memberships are also a way to help give a little added layer of protection too when you do have other competition coming in. Because if you don't have, if they're if they're getting their needs met with you and they're already a member of yours, then they don't have necessarily the incentive to go somewhere else. If they're especially if they're in the buying pattern that this is on their way home or this is when they normally go, that you want to try to keep those as much as possible. Cause the fact is that today there are more and more car washes being built, which is not it's not a bad thing or Or entering into the market, but it does give a distinct opportunity for existing chains in their market to continue to be better and to continue to focus on customer retention and how they can keep their loyal customers and keep them happy so that they're not as affected or they're not losing members or customers to somebody that's coming in down the street.

SPEAKER_02 22:20

As long as we're doing our job with the customer when they come in in terms of the processing, the product, our people, our facility, as long as we are doing that the way that we know we should be doing it, there's no reason for them to leave. Unfortunately, we do give people reasons to leave, and that's something there's an opportunity there for us to improve. But yeah, you're right. We've we've we've experienced it with uh competitors very, very close by and uh still growing our business and growing our membership. So it's changed, and I've been at this a long time, and I would never want to go back to the way we used to do it. This membership uh subscription model is a very effective one. I think it's by the way, it's only gonna get better. It's not gonna, it's not gonna go away, or or you know, I don't think we've even hit the plateau. So I think there's how many members can one site have? I know of sites that have well over 10,000 members, and if you do the math on that, it just changes the economics and your on your operation pretty dramatically.

SPEAKER_01 23:16

So absolutely. And not only does it help you today with the the revenue and the predictable revenue that's coming in, but this is another area that really helps you down the road with the value of your business because you have this strong monthly plan membership and this recurring revenue that should you be looking to make a change or to make an exit, that you've got this definitely as a as a pro and as a plus if you have those those strong monthly membership numbers.

SPEAKER_02 23:45

Well, it's no secret that private equity is entering the car wash business at a pretty heavy clip and they're bidding up uh car wash values. So for every thousand dollars in earnings or profitability, EBADA, you have that could add 10 or 11 or 12,000 to the value of that site. So 100,000 could add a million dollars in the valuation. So it pays to manage your growth and your top line and also manage your expenses. We see it all over the country in my other life with Amplify Car Wash Advisors. We we see a lot of underperforming sites that are leaving money on the table, especially if the owners are contemplating either an exit or perhaps a partnership with a private equity investor. It behooves you to make sure that you're hitting all cylinders and you're maximizing that, even uh earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, that you're maximizing that for the value and the scale of your business. And one thing I'd like to say is uh, you know, if you're going to scale your business and you want to grow from one to five or five to ten or pick a number, you have to have a model that is scalable. You have to have, you know, anybody can buy the equipment and build the building. The challenge is really executing. I think that's again no secret, but it's very difficult to execute. So focusing on those, again, retail is detail, focusing on those details will help you have the ability to scale your business to a higher level and add uh wealth to your family business.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

Absolutely. And so we started this with you sharing about how your three kids are involved in your business with Metro Express car wash. I'd love to hear just a little bit about their different roles and what's kept them attracted to the car wash industry. So I'm I'm assuming that they like that it's a family business and that that has some attractiveness to it. But I would imagine too that they also find the reward in how robust the car wash industry is because it does have all of the components that other businesses that I think have more traditional attention, as far as okay, you need a strong HR team, you need a strong marketing team, you need a strong operations team. That as we have garnered more attention from outside groups in the car wash industry, you see that it's really the same, that we to be successful and to have a successful chain, having those different areas of your business really dialed in, that's what makes you successful. But I'm assuming that your kids have different roles. And so your daughter does human resources, right?

SPEAKER_02 26:24

She is involved in that. Her actual title is chief of staff. She likes to tell me what I can do.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

Nice. That's an added uh added work benefit.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

Can you share a little bit about what it's been like working alongside with family members and having them be part of your journey throughout your career?

SPEAKER_02 26:42

Well, if you were to ask my kids why they like this business, I'm not sure that their first answer would be, I like working for my dad. But uh they they have embraced the business. And uh, I should tell you that they all started at age 12 doing something in the business. When they finished their education, they had to go five years and do something else for somebody else, some some other business, some other work. They couldn't just roll right into the the car wash, it would be too easy. And so that there's that. My daughter is the oldest, uh, she's our chief of staff and organizational development, I think would be her role. Andrew, our middle son, uh, is uh area manager in Montana, site operations. And then Derek uh is our chief operating officer here in Boise. And Derek's had some interesting background. He spent several years with Mr. Carwash growing helping them grow that chain. So he's and he came back and wanted to join the family business. And of course, we embrace that. Working with your kids is in my personal experience, has been great. I love it. They're respectful, they're hardworking, they're committed, they like the business. Obviously, it's profitable, and so it's uh it's good that way. The other thing that we've done and been doing is for the last couple of years, really, is trying to scale our let's call it build the bench, uh, plan for growth, and try to get ready to scale our platform. A year ago we had four stores open. Today we have 11, and by the end of this year, we'll have 15. I think all 15 will be open or close to it. So we're trying to scale our business up to be competitive, and it seems like the right time and the right opportunity to do that. So everyone stays in their lane pretty much and does their job. It's interesting as you grow a business, we're growing, as I told you about some of the growth we've had, and it changes quite dramatically when you take a platform from four or five locations to 15. It's a different company totally. And then from 15 in the subsequent years, our goal is 30 by 25. So by 2025, which is three years from now, we hope to have 30 locations open in our company. Uh, that's going to be a different company than it is today. And you know, I'm reaching a point in my career where I probably need to look at who's going to take over here. And so that's the chain of how things happen. So fortunately, and by the way, there's a lot of talk about private equity coming in and competition, so forth. And I think that's all true. But if you have a well-run family business and you pay attention to the details, I don't think you have to worry about the big consolidators. They're going to be focused on growing, but and we compete with a number of them in our markets and we do just fine. So Right.

SPEAKER_01 29:31

It's not a either-or strategy. I mean, both can coexist and thrive and do well and elevate the industry in different ways that benefits both the operator and the consumer, because by everybody becoming a little bit more competitive and upping their game and filling these voids in the market or finding new and better ways to do things, the consumer is the one who wins with that because they're getting a better product.

SPEAKER_02 29:58

Totally agree. Yeah, I think I think the future's bright. People talk about right now, they hear about recession or inflation, and those are all real things, could happen. They could impact our business somewhat. But I've because I've been at this for a few years, a few decades, I've been through a few of those, and we just did fine. You know, we may not have grown as quickly as we had at other times, but we did fine, and we were able to uh nobody lost their job. You know, we didn't have to close anything up. So again, we paid attention to the focus on the customer, the value proposition, the speed of service, the quality, the people. Anyone is going to go to a business that believes in that. By the way, people, well, what about autonomous cars or you know, this sort of thing? And my response is look, if you're getting into a vehicle that's a ride share, uh the first thing you're gonna look at is how clean is it? You know, you don't want to get into a dirty car. So I think that whole ride share thing is to what actually helps us, doesn't hurt us.

SPEAKER_01 30:52

So yeah, you still don't want to be in a dirty car, no matter who's driving it or who's not driving it.

SPEAKER_02 30:57

Yeah, that's right. That's right. So I think the future for our industry, as far as I can see, at least, is pretty bright. We're not threatened by Amazon or the Chinese or General Motors or that sort of thing. I think we we have a business that can thrive and grow and be very successful based on the model that we and and you know, it doesn't have to be reinvented. I think uh I hear about people, well, I want to reinvent the carway. It doesn't need reinventing, it needs focus on on execution.

SPEAKER_01 31:23

And master the fundamentals, and then you can fine-tune different things that make it more efficient or make it easier in some way, but the basics have probably remained the same since you got in this business decades ago, that people are looking for a product and a service. It's the car wash owner's job or operator to deliver that to them in a way that's acceptable to them, that hopefully even meets their expectations, but for a price that you agree on.

SPEAKER_02 31:49

By the way, one final note maybe is uh when you look at opportunities in our industry, the full service part of our business has been going away at a pretty rapid rate. There's still about 6,000 full service car washes in the US, but they're converting or closing at a pretty rapid rate. I think there is opportunity for forward-thinking entrepreneurs to find ways to deliver that service efficiently, profitably, because I promise you the consumers are more affluent than ever. They want that service. They're going to exterior because it's fast and efficient and convenient. But if you can deliver that at a full server level with efficiently and profitably, again, you will people will beat a path to your door. So I think those opportunities are out there.

SPEAKER_01 32:35

And that's some of the exciting forward-thinking technologies of where automation could really come into play and really enhance that side of the business that's exciting. And I think there's a lot of, like you said, continued room for success. And there's no, it's not like people are gonna not want to have uh a clean vehicle to be in.

SPEAKER_02 32:52

A lot of upside, a lot of upside.

SPEAKER_01 32:54

Bill, one of the things that I kind of wanted to wrap up with is we talked about some of the factors that make car washing successful. And you are an expert in this area. You are not only very knowledgeable and have the experience in a tenure, but you're also very gracious and generous in sharing those. And I say that from just an industry professional and also from a colleague, but I really enjoy our our talks together and how how much you look to provide back to the industry and share these experiences and this wisdom that you've that you've garnered over the years with others. And it just shows that you have a passion for this industry. And all who know you would agree with me. I can speak for them. I know. So I appreciate your time today. Again, thanks for being so open to sharing some of the successes about what makes a successful car wash chain.

SPEAKER_02 33:43

Well, thank you, Lanise, and thanks for taking the time to do this. I hope it's helpful. I think that there's uh still a lot of opportunity in our industry, and uh it'll be interesting to see in the next several years how things develop and change, but I think it's all upward.

SPEAKER_01 33:57

Right. I agree. Well, we'll press on, right?

SPEAKER_00 34:01

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 34:02

Thanks, Bill.

SPEAKER_00 34:03

Thank you for joining us on this episode of Car Wash MA, the podcast, with your host, Lenice Barnett. Like what you hear? Subscribe to our podcast feed and leave us a review or follow us on social media at Amplify Car Wash Advisors. Want more MA information? Visit our website at amplifywash.com and listen for new episodes on the last Thursday of each month.